1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for locating personal information over a network. Specifically, the present invention allows a network user to automatically identify network destinations that are storing the user's personal information.
2. Background Art
As the use of computers becomes more pervasive, computer users are increasingly using the Internet to complete everyday tasks. For example, today a computer user can purchase consumer goods, renew a driver's license and register to vote from the comfort of his/her home. Unfortunately, many on-line transactions require the user to submit some form of personal information. For example, each time a consumer uses a World Wide Website to make a purchase, he/she will be inevitably required to submit some form of personal information for the transaction to be completed. Such information often includes, among other things, the user's name, address, credit card information, etc. Although the user typically desires the personal information to remain private, success is not always guaranteed. For example, many web storage systems are frequently the targets of intruders who attempt to access personal information for illicit purposes. Moreover, many intended recipients (e.g., web companies) sell the personal information to third parties to do with as they please. Given the high volume of transactions that are conducted on-line, the user usually cannot identify of all of the parties possessing his/her personal information.
In an attempt to resolve some of these issues, many legislative bodies have enacted laws to better control the privacy of personal information. However, given the widespread nature of the Internet, and the lack of uniformity between the localities, enforcement of privacy laws is extremely difficult. For example, an Internet company operating in locality “A” may not have to follow the privacy laws set forth by locality “B.” Accordingly, it is often left up to the user to control the distribution of his/her personal information.
Heretofore, a network user controlled the distribution of his/her personal information by manually conducting searches using multiple search strings to identify network destinations where the personal information was stored. Once a network destination was identified, the user could then manually request the information to be deleted/removed. Given the widespread use of the Internet by many users, and the quantity of locations to be searched, this process has been both tedious and inefficient.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method system and program product for locating personal information over a network. Specifically, an application is needed whereby a user can enter personal information, and have a search conducted over a network to identify network destinations storing the personal information.